resembling the presidential election of 1980. who can forget incumbent democratic president, jimmy carter, republican challenger, ronald reagan. from the economy to volatile events in the middle east, how some analysts are now comparing these two races. james rosen is in washington with more on that. hi, james. >> reporter: gregg, good afternoon. a fault line of sorts has emerged in gop and conservative circles over how similar the 2012 cob test is to that -- contest is to that of 1980. 32 years ago republican ronald reagan survived a primary battle and went on to defeat the incumbent democratic president, jimmy carter, by more than nine percentage points n. final week of october, carter was enjoying a lead up from four points the week before. then as now the democratic incumbent painted his gop challenger as a heartless tool of the rich, someone who couldn't be trusted with the world's most difficult job. among those seeing striking similarities between 2012 and 1980 is r. emmetter the ril, the founder and editor of "the america